I'm coming into this a bit late. Can you clarify the following for me:
You call yourself agnostic because you don't see any reason for rejecting any honestly held belief, eg you don't see why you should be incredulous of the superstitions of ancient ignorant goat herders.

No I'm agnostic as I see no reason to be certain in being bale to prove or disprove a deity. I consider equating a deity to a fairy as implying certainty, but not having to prove it.

Quote:You reject a definition of atheism that equates it with having no belief in any deity.[quote]
No I reject identifying as an atheist, as it's solely a response to the theist position. It would make more to be labelled as an anti-theist, as the majority of atheists are.

[quote]You want atheist to be a term defined by its critics as people who assert absolute knowledge of the non-existence of any deity.

No, I see no purpose as identifying as someone who lacks belief unless you have an ulterior motive (e.g. anti-theist)

Quote:You want agnosticism to be noncommittal on the question of any god or gods, neither believing or disbelieving.

Mainly because that's what it is, and historically has been. Atheists attempt to use it as a semantic dodge to being unable to knowing that a negative doesn't exist (e.g deity, santa, fairy etc). It's an assumption to claim this.

Quote:You don't distinguish between believing and knowing anything.

No, as outlined in Kant's critique of pure reason man's limits towards metaphysics needs to be recognised, trying to rationalise beyond that (as I see atheists attempting to do) is futile and mostly an attempt to justify their position and make it sound while still claiming to reject a deity.

Quote:You reject the right of someone who does not believe in any deity to call themselves atheist unless they have some absolute proof of the nonexistence of all deities.

I don't see the point in calling yourself something based on someone else's claim (i.e theists) unless you want to piss them off. I'm not asking for proof of non-existence of deities, I'm asking for proof that we can prove a cause for existence (note this does not mean the cause for the big bang as atheists often like to intertwine existence and the big bang)

Quote:You reject the right of someone who does not believe in any deity to call themselves agnostic because they actively consider use of the term atheist extremely impolite and unwarranted.

Yes, mainly because this is solely an atheistic perspective. You will note that you're focussing on the "does not believe" part, an actual agnostic would also state "does not disbelieve". Your focus is incorrect for an agnostic.